[NOTE BEFORE YOU READ: I'm quite new in these parts and had a pretty disasterous first run. My first four threads were moved, all of which I considered good ones (especially the Dibiase one), I was ticked off via PM and got some serious heel heat. My passionate defence of wrestling debate went largely unacknowledged by CRZ and it seems that those threads are destined to be lost. However, not being a sour grape I am prepared to put it all down to misunderstanding and try again. Hopefully this thread will be worthy of "The W" forum, so please give me a chance here]
The internet smark community are in essence quite a funny old bunch. Whilst they encourage debate it seems to me that certain things seem to be set in stone. It is gospel, for instance, that at Wrestlewar '89 Ric Flair and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat had the greatest match of all time. Similarly, it is almost sacraligious to suggest that Steamboat/ Savage at Wrrestlemania 3 is anything but a ***** match.
However, I've often thought this scope was slightly narrowing. Yes, it's true that Gurrero/ Mysterio (WCW), Michaels/ Ramon (WM X) and Dudleys/ Hardys/ E & C are all undistbuted ***** matches. But there are also great matches that people don't really talk about much. I want you to talk about them here, to recommend matches we may have not seen, to enlighten the unlearned.
Here are a couple of my own picks:
1. At the 2nd Annual Survivor Series:
Powers of Pain, The Hart Foundatuion, The British Bulldogs, The Rockers and The Young Stallions VS. Demolition, The Faboulous Rougeaus, The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters & The Conquistadors.
This is perhaps the best Survivor Series match ever and is heavily featured on the old WWF hype segment on most of the Collusiem videos which had the cheesy country rock music ("if it's bodyslams... backbreakers... side suplexes". Possibly the best display of tag-team wrestling ever!
2. Ric Flair vs. Rick Rude (for the WCW belt around 1990, I think)
3. The Rockers vs The Orient Express (World Tour 89/90)
Great match, nothing else to be said.
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This brings me to my second point, it occurs to me that through bad booking or whatever, certain technically gifted wrestlers have never (to my knowledge) wrestled a ***** match. These are, more often than not, WWF wrestelrs who suffered because of the non-worker ethic the fed had for so many years. Where people like Steamboat, Flair, Blanchard, Rude, Austin and Arn Anderson were encouraged to express themselves in the NWA/ WCW, the technical wrestlers in the WWF always had the job of carrying a Hogan, a Warrior, a Duggan or a Jake Roberts/ Brutus Beefcake type-figure.
Here are the ones that come to mind: Ted Dibiase, Mr. Perfect, Haku, IRS, Rick Martel, Jacques Rougeau (aka The Mountie), The Dynamite Kid, Ravishing Rick Rude...
The Mind is its own place and in itself/ Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n" - John Milton, Paradise Lost